Arguments and counter arguments

OUR OPPONENTS SAY “If our population stops growing we shall not have enough workers to support the elderly!”

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

Population must stop growing sooner or later. When ever growth stops there will be a shift toward an older population.
The later that occurs the larger will be the population and the larger any resulting problem.

The issue of an aging population has been grossly exaggerated. It assumes that all those over the age of 65 are totally dependent.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) only counts those goods and services for which dollars are paid so the contribution of those over 65 who are
not in the paid workforce is invisible to ‘the economy’.

There are large numbers in the paid workforce who are doing work which will no longer exist in a sustainable world.

If we need to provide more support for the aged, we can divert human resources from non essential industries (e.g. tobacco, poker
machines).

Immigration can make very little difference to the aging of the Australian population unless it is massive and that would simply put
off the day of reckoning when the problem would be many times more difficult to solve.

The Productivity Commission, in a report to Parliament said "substantial increases in the level of migration would have only modest
effects on population ageing and the impacts would be temporary, since immigrants themselves age".

A 1999 Australian parliamentary research paper, entitled "Population Futures for Australia: the Policy Alternatives", looked at the
claim that immigration could offset an ageing population. It found that in order to maintain the proportion of the population aged 65 and
over at present levels, "enormous numbers of immigrants would be required, starting in 1998 at 200 000 per annum, rising to 4 million per
annum by 2048 and to 30 million per annum by 2098. By the end of next century with these levels of immigration, our population would have
reached almost one billion."The paper went on to say "It is demographic nonsense to believe that immigration can help to keep our population
young."

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "The health costs of the aging population will become more than the economy can bear."

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

Health costs are rising as a proportion of GDP but this has little to do with aging. Medical care and its associated facilities are
becoming progressively more expensive irrespective of the age of the patient.

Older people today are much healthier than in yesteryear.

The major health costs associated with dying occur in the last few months of life whether death occurs at 40, 50, 70 or 90.

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "There is a skill shortage which can not be met by Australian labour."

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

Those who exploit Australia's non-renewable mineral deposits bleat this claim the loudest. We should not be seeking to exploit these
resources at ever faster rates. What will Australia do when these resources are gone?

We should be actively working toward less reliance on so-called mineral wealth. It is like money in the bank, it can only be spent
once. We must work to establish sustainable industries.

There is an unmet need to better educate and train our own young among whom the unemployment and underemployment rate is much higher
than among those older.

Much of the call for high immigration masquerades behind the call for skilled migrants. This comes from vested interest groups in
building, construction, land "development" and real estate.

We have a housing shortage, bring in more building workers, these need more houses so bring in more building workers ? in an
ever-growing pyramid of population which makes profits for these industries and donations to the big political parties.

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "Environmentalists are sack-cloth and ashes people who want us all to go back and live in caves using candles."

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

The truth is the EXACT OPPOSITE.

Growth in population and growth in per capita consumption cannot continue. Those who are driving for ever more growth are the
selfish ones, driving humanity toward living impoverished lives in caves.

Those of us who seek an environmentally sustainable future believe we can avoid this fate for our children by recognising that
there are limits set by Nature and that humanity must live within those limits.

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "Australia has such a vast land area, it can take many more people."

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

People require much more than space. Only 6% of Australia is arable.

It is the oldest driest continent on Earth with poor depleted soils. Australia's food production is not large by world standards
regularly producing less wheat than France and sometimes less then England.

Food production is heavily dependent on adding phosphorus to our poor soils and phosphorus is rapidly becoming less available and
more expensive.

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "Its selfish for so few people to inhabit this vast country when the majority of humanity is more crowded and worse off."

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

Australia can make little difference to the condition of the rest of humanity by bringing any number of people here. India's
population increases each year by more than the total population of Australia.

How best can we discharge our humanitarian responsibility to the rest of humankind? By seeking to establish a model of an
environmentally sustainable society here and by sharing our experiences, our knowledge and our technology with other peoples and
nations so that they can find their path to their own sustainable future.

And by substantially lifting our foreign aid at least to the recommended UN minimum.

Far more human welfare can be bought, dollar for dollar, helping people in their own countries than in bringing those people
to Australia.

About 40% of the present Australian population were either born overseas or have parents who were born overseas.

There is no doubt that past migration has added to Australia's cultural mix but it does not follow that further large scale
immigration can produce a still better society.

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "A growing population leads to economic growth."

Stop Population Growth Now says

In general a larger population will have a larger economy but the measure of greater importance to the individual is growth
of per capita GDP.

There is no evidence in industrial societies such as Australia that population growth leads to growth in per capita GDP.

OUR OPPONENTS SAY "We can cater for population growth by providing more infrastructure."

Stop Population Growth Now SAYS

At our present rate of population growth, does anyone seriously believe that we are going to be able to keep up with the demands of the
ever increasing number of people? No government is keeping up with the PRESENT demand for health services, roads, power, water, public
transport etc, let alone satisfying the enormous demand that would be generated by a population of 35 million as proposed by some. The
present federal government has a debt of $300 BILLION dollars. It is completely unrealistic to believe they will ever be able to find the
funds to provide the massive increases in infrastructure required.